WASHINGTON - Military operations in northern Iraq Nov. 25 by U.S. forces led to the arrest of the wife and daughter of the Ibrahimal-Duri, a senior Saddam official who is believed to be the mastermind behind attacks on U.S. forces, according to CENTCOM officials today.

WASHINGTON - Britain's top diplomat said today in Baghdad that members of the Iraqi Governing Council are pleased that an Iraqi-run government is slated to assume governance of the country early next summer.

WASHINGTON - Thanksgiving is a uniquely American holiday - a reminder not only of the abundance that freedom brings, but that ours was the first nation in the history of the world to be founded on freedom.

WASHINGTON - Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz hosted a pre-Thanksgiving dinner at the Pentagon Nov. 25 honoring almost 70 U.S. service members wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan and their families and thanking them for their contributions to the war on terror.

WASHINGTON - Army Spc. Brian Wilhelm has been at Walter Reed Army Medical Center here since Oct. 11, exactly six months from the time his unit crossed into Iraq. His lower left leg was amputated as a result of being severely wounded in Iraq.

WASHINGTON - The Defense Department's top personnel and readiness official called the fiscal 2004 National Defense Authorization Act "transformational" for its support of the department's aim to change to confront the threats of the future.

WASHINGTON - The coalition's intensified offensive operations in Iraq have reduced attacks on American forces by about 50 percent during the past two weeks, but as a result, desperate Saddam Hussein loyalists have turned their aggression toward innocent Iraqis, officials told reporters in Baghdad today.

WASHINGTON - The Defense Department is ready to start consulting with allies on what the worldwide American military posture should be, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said at the Pentagon press conference today.

WASHINGTON - Guardsmen, reservists, and their families and employers will have the chance to ride on a float honoring reserve component service and employers' contributions to that service during the Tournament of Roses 2004 parade in Pasadena, Calif.

WASHINGTON - Calling it a landmark piece of legislation that sends the clear message that "Americans stand with the United States military," President Bush signed the fiscal 2004 National Defense Authorization Act in a Pentagon ceremony here today.

WASHINGTON - Baghdad International Airport was closed to all civilian traffic after a DHL cargo aircraft was hit by surface-to-air missiles Nov. 22, coalition officials said during a press conference today in Baghdad, Iraq.

WASHINGTON - Fourth-grade students Allison Foster and Rebeca Reyes, both 9, said they were sad to see the military go off to war in Iraq. Reyes said she really didn't know much about the war, other than what her mother told her: "that my grandpapa was in the last one."

WASHINGTON - Michele Heidenberger enjoyed tennis. The lead flight attendant on American Airlines Flight 77 and 183 others lost their lives when the hijacked plane crashed into the Pentagon Sept. 11, 2001.

WASHINGTON - Unconventional rocket attacks that struck the Iraqi oil ministry and two hotels in Baghdad today indicate insurgents' increasing difficulty in carrying out assaults against U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq, according to a senior U.S. military officer.

WASHINGTON - As America approaches the Thanksgiving holiday, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said he is grateful for the voluntary service of soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines worldwide as they protect America and take the fight to the terrorists.

WASHINGTON - U.S. Special Operations Command announced plans Nov. 18 to relocate its headquarters that provides command and control for special operations in Central and South America to Homestead Air Reserve Base, Fla., by March 31, 2004.

WASHINGTON - It wasn't easy sending her only son off to war last February, Nancy Fowler admits. And it's no easier now that he's home, knowing that his unit, the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, is preparing to return to Iraq again this time, for a full year.

WASHINGTON - The leaders of the United States and Great Britain today pledged to stand fast in Iraq and continue their unified fight against world terrorism as yet another apparent terrorist bombing rocked Istanbul, Turkey.

WASHINGTON - Then-Washington Redskins head coach Joe Gibbs had just won his first Super Bowl when he literally cashed in on the accomplishment. The team's owner awarded him a cash bonus, but later Gibbs learned that the owner would stand to make a lot more money than the paltry $70,000 Gibbs received.

WASHINGTON - New, reinforced helmets and body armor being fielded to the military today represent just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what's on the drawing board for protecting warfighters of the future.

WASHINGTON - U.S. soldiers and Iraqi security forces continue to capture or kill coalition enemies, seize their weapons and destroy their hiding places as Operations Iron Hammer and Ivy Cyclone II roll on in Iraq, a senior coalition officer said in a Baghdad news conference today.

WASHINGTON - Two independent, DoD-requested medical panels recently concluded it's possible that vaccinations given to an Army reservist caused a severe illness that led to her death, DoD's senior health care official said here Nov. 18.

WASHINGTON - Smoking affects both the personal health and readiness of military personnel, so DoD is encouraging those who smoke or use smokeless tobacco to take steps to end their addiction by taking part in the Great American Smokeout Nov. 20.

WASHINGTON - The letters, memoirs, audio interviews and photographs are "everything that you could imagine," said Ellen McCulloch- Lovell, director of the Veterans History Project, an effort begun by Congress two years ago to preserve the stories and memories of America's war veterans.

WASHINGTON - Army Sgt. 1st Class Caron Whitby likes talking to young people. The Californian and former drill sergeant has helped shape and prepare hundreds of soldiers for Army life, and many are likely serving in hot spots all over the globe.

WASHINGTON - Part of the $87.5 billion supplemental appropriations bill for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan signed earlier this month by President Bush will go toward improving quality of life for troops there.

SEOUL, South Korea - American military forces in South Korea need to transform to defend against changing threats in today's world, the general in charge of U.S. and combined forces in that country said.

SEOUL, South Korea - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld reassured South Korean leaders that any changes in the U.S. posture in the country will do nothing to detract from the United States' commitment to defend Korea.

WASHINGTON - Something about a 12-foot-high, 56-ton rock north of Greenfield, Iowa, must scream "Paint me!" to the artistically inclined. For years, it played host to teenagers' graffiti as it stood sentry next to Highway 25, about a mile south of the Greenfield exit off Interstate 80 in Iowa.

SEOUL, South Korea - The United States and South Korea have agreed in principle to move most American forces out of the capital city of Seoul and south from the demilitarized zone along the border with North Korea.

WASHINGTON - With Operation Iron Hammer in full swing around Baghdad and Operation Ivy Cyclone II under way around Tikrit, Baquba, Kirkuk and Balad, U.S. and coalition forces continue to crack down on insurgents in Iraq.

WASHINGTON - The Army's 4th Infantry Division and Task Force Ironhorse have launched a combined-arms operation called Ivy Cyclone II in the effort to root out and crush insurgents in Iraq, U.S. Central Command officials announced today.

TOKYO - The security relationship between the United States and Japan is just as vital today as it was during the Cold War and immediately following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Japan's chief defense official said here today.

WASHINGTON - When Mary Massey adopted Robert Campbell earlier this year, she had no idea what to expect. Like others who adopt, she thought that adoption might be a positive and kind gesture that would help another person. Little did Massey know that shortly after adopting Campbell, he would ask for enough cookies to feed 600 of his friends.

WASHINGTON - Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's regime presented a clear and present danger to the United States and to the world and had to be removed, DoD's top policy official told members of a think tank here Nov. 13.

WASHINGTON - Army and Air Force aircraft reportedly pounded insurgent staging and operating facilities and killed seven people preparing an attack on U.S. forces during the second night of Operation Iron Hammer in Iraq.

TOKYO, Japan - American and other coalition military forces fighting the war on terrorism are making a choice between living in freedom and living in fear, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told a crowd of service members in Guam today.

BALTIMORE - The moonlight dances with the lights on the tarmac at Baltimore-Washington International Airport as the winds blow rustling leaves across the runway. It's 4 a.m., or "o-dark thirty" as those in the military like to say.

WASHINGTON - The governing council wants to take on more responsibility for Iraq, and the Bush administration is more than willing to help them, said Condoleezza Rice, the president's adviser for national security.

WASHINGTON - Multitalented special operations troops provide senior U.S. military commanders with an array of options in addressing the multifaceted challenges presented by the war on global terrorism, said DoD's top special operations official.

WASHINGTON - The terrorists trying to undermine coalition efforts in Iraq are a "despicable bunch of thugs," but no military threat exists in Iraq that can drive the United States out, the commander of U.S. Central Command said today.

TAMUNING, Guam - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld today expressed his sympathies to the families and friends of the 12 Italian military police troops who died when their headquarters in the Iraqi town of Nasiriyah was blown up Nov. 12.

ARLINGTON, Va. - Among the many veterans who came to see President Bush pay tribute to the nation's veterans on the 50th anniversary of Veterans Day here today, three said they still are willing to serve their country, ready to go back to war and rejoin America's latest battle in Iraq.

WASHINGTON - When Vietnamese Minister of National Defense Senior Lt. Gen. Pham Van Tra entered the Pentagon today, it was the first time a defense leader from his country had entered the building since 1973.

QAYARAH, Iraq - Soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) not only are working to make Iraq secure, but also are putting time and effort into helping towns and villages with their "Operation Helping Hands" and "Adopt a Village" programs.

WASHINGTON - Before his youngest son joined the Marine Corps, Frank Schaeffer's impression of military service could be summed up on a mock recruiting poster: "Out of Work? Undereducated? No Health Plan? Join the Army and see Iraq."

WASHINGTON - With "success" as the exit strategy, the numbers of U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq in the meantime "will depend on the security situation on the ground," the Defense Department's top civilian told foreign journalists here today.

WASHINGTON - Veterans Day is a solemn day to honor and recognize all who have served our nation in war and in peace. This year, hundreds of thousands of our men and women in uniform and Department of Defense civilians have the distinction of serving in wartime. Counted among them is the largest number of reservists and guardsmen activated since the Korean War.

WASHINGTON - From the birth of our nation - when farmers dropped their pitchforks, and took up muskets to secure our independence - courageous young men and women have stepped forward to defend freedom. They are America's veterans.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - These are not your typical Baghdad care packages. The brown boxes arriving from the Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth and Families contain diapers, pacifiers, blankets and powder, not items high on any soldier's hit list.

WASHINGTON - Secretary Anthony Principi made bold claims today on plans to transform the second largest federal department in the nation, promising veterans and America that the "Veterans Affairs will not be found wanting."

WASHINGTON - What the VA loan program did to help veterans acquire a piece of the American dreamtheir own home, a program called "The Veterans Transition Franchise Initiative," or VetFran, is helping retiring vets obtain an even larger slicetheir own business.

ARLINGTON, Va. - More than 500 members of an Oklahoma Army National Guard infantry brigade are transferring the military training skills and cultural lessons they have been mastering this fall in Colorado to the southwest Asian country, where they will serve for most of the upcoming winter and spring.

WASHINGTON - "No enemy or friend can doubt that America has the resources and the will to see this war through to victory," said President Bush before signing the $87.5 billion supplemental appropriations bill for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

WASHINGTON - Vietnam veteran and four-time Super Bowl champion Rocky Bleier, running back for the Pittsburgh Steelers, will narrate a National Football League public service announcement in support of the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund during network telecasts beginning Nov. 9.

WASHINGTON - It's important that leaders and communicators at TRICARE -- the Defense Department's health care plan are on the same page in providing accurate, timely information to beneficiaries and other audiences, DoD's top health care official said here Nov. 4.

WASHINGTON - The weather conditions were perfect: Heavy snowfall was blasting the Washington metro region with up to 25 inches. It was just the moment John W. Alli had been waiting for to do something to honor his father.

WASHINGTON - Recruiting and retention has "held up nicely despite stress on the force as a whole," Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness David Chu told members of the House Armed Services Committee here today.

WASHINGTON - Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said today that to sustain the support of the Iraqi people, America must send a "clear and strong signal that the United States will be with them until we are no longer needed."

JALALBAD, Afghanistan - With a little bit of luck and a landmine detour, the Combined Joint Civil Military Operations Task Force team based in Jalalabad found a good home recently for the future Provincial Reconstruction Team site in the eastern Afghan province of Nagarhar.

WASHINGTON - President Bush said that some of the best Americans have fallen in defense of freedom and liberty. "We mourn every loss. We honor every name. We grieve with every family. And we will always be grateful that liberty has found such brave defenders," he said during a speech in Birmingham, Ala., today.

WASHINGTON - The Nov. 2 downing of a U.S. military helicopter that was flying troops en route to stateside leave won't affect a recently expanded rest and recuperation leave program, according to U.S. Central Command.

WASHINGTON - In response to news of a U.S. helicopter being downed in Iraq today, killing 15 soldiers and injuring 21, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said, "It was a bad day, a bad day, a tragic day for those people."

WASHINGTON - Fifteen U.S. soldiers were killed and 21 were wounded when a coalition helicopter went down near the city of Amiryah, Iraq, at about 9 a.m. local time today. This was the single deadliest attack on coalition forces since President Bush announced the end of major combat in Iraq.

WASHINGTON - President Bush told the world in his radio address to the nation today that terrorists and Saddam Hussein's Baathist loyalists will not weaken the country's will, and the United States will not leave Iraq until the job he set out to do is done.